I was in Italy last month and had no problems with my Droid working on wifi, as a music player, or any other function that a network connection was not required. Your wife either has a bad phone or is exaggerating how little the phone is working.

Clearly all of her droid's functionality is stuck behind the Maginot Line. The missing functions simply need to go into Belgium, and then come around the Maginot line, and they'll have full use in France.